The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

20VC: 8VC’s Joe Lonsdale on How To Foster Contrarian Thinking Within Venture Partnerships, Why The Best VCs Are Company Builders & Why It Is Not Possible To Build Multi-Billion Dollar Companies and Have Worklife Balance

19 snips

Jul 7, 2020

In this discussion, Joe Lonsdale, a General Partner at 8VC and co-founder of Palantir, shares insights from his impressive career in tech and venture capital. He believes the best VCs are builders who leverage historical knowledge for better investment decisions. Lonsdale emphasizes the importance of contrarian thinking in venture partnerships and addresses the challenges posed by woke culture. He also advises founders on managing cash burn strategically in today's market, warning against sacrificing growth for immediate gains.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

ANECDOTE

8VC Origin

Joe Lonsdale invested early in his career, including with Peter Thiel's family office.
He advised and angel invested in 14 companies, leading mentors to suggest he formalize it into a fund.

INSIGHT

History's Relevance to Investing

Studying history reveals evolutionary processes and forces shaping events.
These same frameworks apply to understanding the evolution of companies and industries for macro investing.

INSIGHT

Builder VCs

Top VCs are company builders, giving them a unique advantage in deal sourcing.
Their experience provides valuable insights and positions them at the center of the tech world.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Joe Lonsdale is a General Partner @ 8VC and in the past has invested in many notable companies including Wish, Oculus, Oscar and Guardant Health. As a result, in both 2016 and 2017, Joe was the youngest member of the Forbes 100 Midas List. Prior to 8VC, Joe co-founded Palantir, one of the world's most impactful multi-billion dollar software companies. Joe also co-founded and serves as Chairman @ Addepar, which has over $1.8 trillion managed on its wealth management technology platform. If that was not enough, Joe is also a founder of Affinity, Anduin and Esper.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Joe made his way into the world of tech and startups, came to co-found Palantir and Addepar and how that led to his founding 8VC? How does Joe

believe the study of history makes one a better investor?

2.) Why does Joe believe that the best VCs are company builders? How does Joe think about, evaluate and put into action the incubator model? How does Joe respond to LPs that suggest it is a distraction? How does voting for incubations differ for investment voting?

3.) What does contrarian thinking really mean to Joe? What does Joe do to specifically engender contrarian thinking in the 8VC partnership? What is the relationship between contrarianism and political correctness? How does Joe think about the dangers of woke culture today?

4.) How does Joe advise founders to think through cash burn and runway today? What is going to happen to companies that sacrified growth for gross margin in 1 year? How does Joe advise founders on the balance of sticking to your vision and mission vs knowing when to give up?

5.) Why does Joe think it is important to not just start new companies but new cities also? Despite the insane cost of living, why does Joe believe the Valley has given rise to the insane levels of innovation it has done? Will the dominance of the valley remain over the next decade?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:

Joe’s Fave Book: How Innovation Works, A Time to Build: From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus

Joe’s Most Recent Investment: Beacon

As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here!

Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.